More Campaign Literature Glitches	by Buck Quigley

SLIP SLIDING AWAY

Just as my lawyer predicted in last week’s story (“How Campaign Literature Nearly Killed Me,” Artvoice, August 28), my pain and suffering has increased over the past week, due to more and more slippery piles of campaign literature dropped through my mail slot.

From a flier paid for by Responsible New York titled "Stop the Insanity."

Even though I am moving gingerly due to last Tuesday’s slip and fall, I still managed to land in a painful heap again after sliding in the hall on two new fliers from Citizens for Sam Hoyt, two new fliers from Responsible New York attacking Hoyt, one eight-and-a-half-by-11-inch yellow paper flier telling me to trust Barbra Kavanaugh, one new flier from a group called Mothers and Fathers Demanding Answers that harps on Hoyt’s marital infidelity, and, for good measure, two more slick, card-stock advertisements—one from the friends of Diane LaVallee, the other promoting Ken Case, who are both running for district attorney.

The new behind-the-scenes player here is Mothers and Fathers Demanding Answers, but good luck finding out who this group is. They have a one-page Web site that’s a rehash of the same stories pulled from the lurid, Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post and the New York Daily News, with another headline pulled from the New York Times that is not about Hoyt, but about the New York State Assembly rules regarding fraternization that were put in place in 2004.

I wanted to give Mothers and Fathers Demanding Answers a call to find out who they were and ask them why they put a big, glossy flier inside my front door for me to slip on, but the only number offered on the Web site is Sam Hoyt’s. They urge us to call him and tell him it’s time to give us answers.

So, I gave Hoyt’s office a call. They couldn’t tell me anything about Mothers and Fathers Demanding Answers, either. Imagine my frustration—both as a father, and as someone demanding answers.

Once again, I pulled out the magnifying glass and discovered the same union printer’s stamp on this ad as on all the literature from Responsible New York, the political action committee started by billionaire Tom Golisano. Not only that, but I found it all shared the same presort standard US postage paid permit number—1890—which a nice woman at a New York City Post Office explained was the identifier for a mailing house located on Long Island.

It appears that both Responsible New York and Mothers and Fathers Demanding Answers have spent a lot of money downstate to attack an incumbent assemblyman here. Five slick nine-by-12 ads and counting.

By comparison, Hoyt’s three ads cite permit number 786, which I learned was associated with Zenger Group, located at 525 Hertel Avenue. I also received an anonymous phone message informing me that Kavanaugh’s ad from last week was in fact paid for by the Friends of Barbra Kavanaugh, but when I called back to ask why it didn’t say so on the mailer, nobody returned my call.

Let’s assume it was. If that’s the case, then her bulk mailing permit number is 2. That number, I’m told by the United States Postal Service, is associated with Ulrich Mail. Their address is the same as the Zenger Group’s. So at least it appears that both Hoyt and Kavanaugh are spending money with local businesses to tear each other apart.

I left a message for Democratic operative Steve Pigeon, who has been working with Responsible New York, to see if he knew of any connection between the mailings paid for by his group and the one from Mothers and Fathers Demanding Answers, since they’re all the same size and card-stock, and were all handled by the same Long Island mailing house. At press time, I had received no reply.

I also would have thanked him for the pro-Kavanaugh ad Responsible New York placed in this week’s issue of Artvoice, working through a company called Manhattan Media, located at 79 Madison Avenue. It’s been my experience that an issue of Artvoice is not nearly as slippery as a glossy flier. Further, since Artvoice is not delivered through the mail slot, there is much less risk for a hazardous fall as you enter your home.

—buck quigley